talk before or after? I can arrange my time to suit yours. But we must go over those papers of my uncle’s or we might get all balled up tonight.”
Carol found herself being whirled through the strange city streets in a daze. She seemed no longer to have the power to protest. Some force stronger than herself had taken possession of her now. She had agreed to be its servant, and this was the result. She was being made to attend a banquet—the dinner had grown to the proportions of a banquet now, and relentlessly she was being drawn on to attend it and to make a speech before a lot of men! It choked her to think of it, and yet somehow she could do nothing about it. Her trunk, too, had joined the conspirators and was riding behind with an air of disloyalty that made her half afraid.
She looked in awe at the magnificent structure before which they presently stopped. The excellent hotel of the seashore resort receded into oblivion before the splendors of this stately portal. She stepped inside with Mr. Fawcett and suddenly felt very small and insignificant indeed. What would Mother and Betty say when they heard how she was housed in Chicago?
As she stood at the desk while her escort arranged for the room, which he had had reserved earlier in the day, she glimpsed a glorified elevator in luxurious upholstery and bronze, and watched two men; a long, lank one and a stout, short fellow in a checked suit; step inside. They turned around and she saw their two faces as the bronze door clanked its noisy lattice shut and they were lifted out of her sight. Her heart seemed to go dead within her. Who
were
those two men?
Up in her room Carol opened her bag. There on the top was her Bible, and she remembered that the day was well on and she had not yet kept her promise to her mother. It might be after midnight when she got back from the banquet; better get this over with.
A card dropped out as she picked up the book. On it was written in her mother’s careful script, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Poor Mother! She was always doing things like that hoping they would get across.
Impatiently Carol fluttered over the leaves of the Bible. Proverbs. That was a nice impersonal book; it would have short, crisp verses and not take much time. Time was going fast and she must keep at least the letter of her promise. At random she opened at the third chapter and caught at a verse: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
How strange! It was almost as if the verses were written for her. She put the book sharply down on the dressing table and went on with her dressing, yet all the time in her heart putting up some sort of a wild little longing that the promise might be made good in what she was about to do. Whether it was all prayer, or part superstition, or merely a reversion to a childish habit, she was not quite sure.
Chapter 4
C arol chose the jade velvet—partly because it was the first thing in sight when she opened her trunk and seemed to revive her drooping spirits with its delicate, elusive color, and partly because it was the grandest thing she owned, the only dress in her wardrobe that had not been made at home. It was a little bargain that a friend who was a buyer in a large department store had picked up abroad, worn once, then decided was unbecoming to her sallow complexion and sold to Carol at a ridiculously low price. Carol had never hoped to own a real imported dress until this dawned upon her excited vision. She knew in her heart when she bought it that she was scarcely justified in buying a dress like this for the few times it would be possible or appropriate in her busy life to wear it.
But now it flung its delicate beauty at her triumphant. Here, at last its justification, was an occasion fully equal to the gown, and of course it was what she would wear. For a few minutes she
Carol found herself being whirled through the strange city streets in a daze. She seemed no longer to have the power to protest. Some force stronger than herself had taken possession of her now. She had agreed to be its servant, and this was the result. She was being made to attend a banquet—the dinner had grown to the proportions of a banquet now, and relentlessly she was being drawn on to attend it and to make a speech before a lot of men! It choked her to think of it, and yet somehow she could do nothing about it. Her trunk, too, had joined the conspirators and was riding behind with an air of disloyalty that made her half afraid.
She looked in awe at the magnificent structure before which they presently stopped. The excellent hotel of the seashore resort receded into oblivion before the splendors of this stately portal. She stepped inside with Mr. Fawcett and suddenly felt very small and insignificant indeed. What would Mother and Betty say when they heard how she was housed in Chicago?
As she stood at the desk while her escort arranged for the room, which he had had reserved earlier in the day, she glimpsed a glorified elevator in luxurious upholstery and bronze, and watched two men; a long, lank one and a stout, short fellow in a checked suit; step inside. They turned around and she saw their two faces as the bronze door clanked its noisy lattice shut and they were lifted out of her sight. Her heart seemed to go dead within her. Who
were
those two men?
Up in her room Carol opened her bag. There on the top was her Bible, and she remembered that the day was well on and she had not yet kept her promise to her mother. It might be after midnight when she got back from the banquet; better get this over with.
A card dropped out as she picked up the book. On it was written in her mother’s careful script, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
Poor Mother! She was always doing things like that hoping they would get across.
Impatiently Carol fluttered over the leaves of the Bible. Proverbs. That was a nice impersonal book; it would have short, crisp verses and not take much time. Time was going fast and she must keep at least the letter of her promise. At random she opened at the third chapter and caught at a verse: “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”
How strange! It was almost as if the verses were written for her. She put the book sharply down on the dressing table and went on with her dressing, yet all the time in her heart putting up some sort of a wild little longing that the promise might be made good in what she was about to do. Whether it was all prayer, or part superstition, or merely a reversion to a childish habit, she was not quite sure.
Chapter 4
C arol chose the jade velvet—partly because it was the first thing in sight when she opened her trunk and seemed to revive her drooping spirits with its delicate, elusive color, and partly because it was the grandest thing she owned, the only dress in her wardrobe that had not been made at home. It was a little bargain that a friend who was a buyer in a large department store had picked up abroad, worn once, then decided was unbecoming to her sallow complexion and sold to Carol at a ridiculously low price. Carol had never hoped to own a real imported dress until this dawned upon her excited vision. She knew in her heart when she bought it that she was scarcely justified in buying a dress like this for the few times it would be possible or appropriate in her busy life to wear it.
But now it flung its delicate beauty at her triumphant. Here, at last its justification, was an occasion fully equal to the gown, and of course it was what she would wear. For a few minutes she
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